Influencers, please label yourselves

Has your software company started an influence marketing strategy? If your answer is no, or what the heck is influence marketing, please read on.

According to Influencer 50, a firm specializing in influence marketing, the concept of influencers is nothing new. “While relationships with influencers may not immediately add value to your product or service, they directly and consistently impact the likelihood of purchase.” Influencers are people outside of your company that sway your potential customers. Sound familiar?

Barbara French, marketing consultant, online publisher, and co-founder of Tekrati, tackles the topic of influence marketing in her blog, Sway. French tends to focus on the blend of various marketing strategies to have “greater impact on customer decisions.”

As with any new strategy, it is important to identify the correct targets. Unfortunately many influencers do not label themselves as such. Execute proper research to identify the influencers for your company. Next week, I’ll discuss approaches to identifying influencers.

For now, first things first. In order to correctly label influencers, you must understand the shapes and sizes they come in. The most influential influencers for expansion stage software companies may include:

• Bloggers (and microbloggers)

• Business and trade journalists
• Buyers groups, purchasing lists and procurement authorities

• Commentators and other individuals

• Conferences and events
• Consumers and consumer groups

• Individual and niche consultants
• Industry analysts
• Online forums
• Peers (role-based, industry-based)
• VARs, distributors and similar channel partners

For the full list, please check out Barbara French’s blog post or pick up a copy of the book Influencer Marketing by Duncan Brown and Nick Hayes.
Stay tuned for more ideas and insights.